London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Kensington 1926

The annual report on the health of the Borough for the year1926

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80
The Mayor and Mayoress visited the Exhibition. Mrs. Dudley Baxter presented the prizes
to each successful competitor and also gave each one a certificate personally signed by herself.
The Exhibition proved a conspicuous success and it is certain that much good Maternity and
Child Welfare educational work was carried out.
During the year, the Advisory Committee prepared the programme of work for the Council's
Health Lecturer; they laid down a carefully considered policy for adoption by the Infant Welfare
Centres in regard to Birth Control; and carried out other advisory and supervisory duties of great
value.
It is to the wise counsel of the Advisory Committee that the smooth and harmonious working
of the Council's Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme must be mainly attributed.
HOUSING
ACCOMMODATION EXISTING IN THE BOROUGH.
The number of private dwellings, self-contained maisonettes, mansion-flats, residential hotels
and boarding-houses in the Borough is approximately 21,200, and they are situated chiefly in
South Kensington and the Pembridge Ward of North Kensington. They are occupied by the
higher social and professional and semi-professional classes and present little difficulty to the
officers of the Public Health Department.
There are 866 houses of the cottage type, that is, with three or less bedrooms. These cottages
are distributed fairly evenly over all parts of the Borough and generally provide satisfactory
accommodation for single families.
The number of tenements in block buildings in various parts of the Borough occupied by the
working classes is approximately 470. As these are generally of fairly recent construction, they
are mostly satisfactory from the sanitary point of view.

There are 2,091 mews-dwellings in the Borough and the following table shows the number situated in North and South Kensington, with the number of rooms they contain: —

North KensingtonSouth KensingtonThe Borough
Number with 2 rooms163208371
,, ,, 3 ,,3117531,064
,, ,, 4 ,,188374562
,, ,, 5 ,,237194

In recent years the general condition of mews-dwellings in the Borough has been very much
improved and the Council have paid a good deal of attention to the cleanliness of the mewsways.
In certain of the mewsways occupied by the poorest classes, the stable accommodation is used for
storage purposes by costermongers, and difficulties arise owing to the careless manner in which
these street traders dispose of their unsound food-stuffs. The activities of the Council, however,
in regard to this problem have done much to secure better conditions in North Kensington mewsways.
There are in the Borough approximately 5,690 houses let in lodgings and occupied by the
working classes without having been specially adapted for the purpose. These houses are satisfactory
from the point of view of structural and architectural planning, and except for the fact that
they have in the majority of cases no bathroom, they would be regarded as providing satisfactory
accommodation as single-family houses. They are large, with a basement, ground floor,
first floor, second floor, and sometimes a third floor and fourth floor. There are two rooms on
each floor and generally a slip room on one or two floors. With the exception of the slip rooms,
the rooms are of good dimensions. Difficulties arise, however, owing to these houses, which were
originally intended for one family, having been let to three, four, five or six families.

reduced to 53. These 53 are situated in the following parts of the Borough: —

Norland Ward22
St. Charles Ward10
Pembridge Ward9
Golborne Ward12
53

The average rent of a furnished room is 7s. per week including the use of such furniture as the
owner provides.